Sweet Caroline
by deeleigh
Summary: The good times never seemed so good. I've been inclined to believe they never would. Post Con Man.


**Title:** Sweet Caroline  
**Word Count:** 1,659  
**Timeline:** Booth's Birthday. Post _Con Man_  
**Pairing: **B/B, obviously. :)  
**Disclaimer: **I don't own Bones, but I have 206 of them. Title is taken from Niel Diamond's song of the same name.  
**Spoilers:** Everything up to _Con Man_.  
**Summary:** _Good times never seemed so good. Oh, I've been inclined to believe they never would.  
_**A/N:**This is my attempt to get over the fact that baseball ruins my life.

* * *

She stepped under Booth's arm, leaving the bar, and said goodnight and thank you to the owner. She shivered as they walked to the Tahoe. "You cold, Bones?"

"I can't actually wear my coat," she said, pointing at her arm with her good hand. "And it is most definitely Autumn."

He nodded, "I'll blast the heat." He unlocked the doors, and they both got in the truck. He turned the key in the ignition, and turned the heat onto maximum.

"Thanks, " she said, leaning against the window.

Booth nodded, but said nothing.

They had sat out on the bench for nearly an hour, saying nothing, until Brennan's teeth had begun to chatter, and Booth said they needed to go back inside. Then they sat at the bar, drinking fruity drinks and eating yam fries and pieces of cake with their friends until closing. When Brennan tried to pay their tab for the entire night, Hodgins had insisted that he pitch in, and then he said he couldn't argue because he needed to drive a drunken Angela home. Fifty-fifty seemed fair, Brennan realized, so she let him pay for half.

And now... now she was sitting in Booth's truck, on his birthday, and it was... akward, almost. She didn't know what she was supposed to say. Maybe Booth didn't find the silence akward. She never really knew. She just... she didn't know.

"I am sorry, you know," she said, not really knowing where she was going with it.

"Bones, it was a long time ago--"

"No," she said. "I'm sorry you had a shitty birthday."

"There've been worse," he said, eyes straight ahead.

She shook her head. "That doesn't mean they should all be bad. If anyone deserves to have a good birthday, I think it would be you."

"Thanks, Bones."

There was another long, pregnant silence that she wasn't really used to. She knew she had screwed up with Jared, but did she really cause all of the... did she cause all this? "I have something for you," she said cautiously, after a few minutes.

"Thanks, Bones, but that's really not ne--"

"Booth," she intterupted. "It's your birthday, and you're my bestfriend. Of course I got you a gift, and actually, antropologically, I believe it is necessary for me to get you a gift. Otherwise, our society would deem me rude or unclassy or something similar."

"Thank you, Bones," he said, finally pulling his eyes from the road. He looked over at her and she felt as if her heart was growing inside her chest. That's not actually possible, but she felt it anyways. She leaned against the window, and tried to figure out how she would explain the gift. She didn't think he would actually take it. He would feel guilty, or insulted or... Well, she didn't know what he'd feel, but she was nervous nonetheless.

They were five blocks from Brennan's apartment when she asked Booth to stop driving. "Can we just, you know, walk from here?"

"Walk?" He asked skeptically. "Bones, you were just freezing five minutes ago."

"Please, Booth? There's something I want to show you."

He nodded, pulling over to the sidewalk.

She jumped from the car, and waited for him to come and stand beside her before she started walking. She could feel him looking at her, as if trying to understand something very profound, but she ignored it.

"I imagine this isn't where you thought you would be at 37." It wasn't a question, so he didn't need to answer, but she knew he would.

"Sometimes things don't play out how you think they will," he said, finally looking away from her.

"Yeah," she said, suddenly shy.

"When I was a kid, I was obsessed with Transformers."

"The robots?"

"Yeah. And you know how sometimes cereal gives you the prize at the bottom of the box?"

"Yeah," she said. "Russ always stole them."

He laughed lightly. "Yeah, well anyways, my mom bought some Cocoa Puffs for Jared and I, because it was my... tenth birthday, and they were giving away a Transformer action figure. Mom said Jared couldn't take it, that it was mine. So, anyways, I opened up the box, poured a bowl, and went to school. Then I got home, and figured 'hell, it's my birthday, I can eat as many bowls of Cocoa Puffs as I want.' So, I thought that the toy would be on the bottom. I was so excited to get that stupid toy, so I sat at the kitchen table for hours, just trying to empty that box of cereal. Jared said he'd help after a while, so we both sat there. Then Jared started feeling really sick. He was little, five I think, so he really couldn't eat all that much. Then I started getting really sick. And then there was no toy at the bottom.

"When my old man got home, saw that we'd eaten the whole box, that we were both sick because of it... He was so mad."

"That wasn't a nice story, Booth."

"I know," he said, shrugging.

"I thought it was going to be a cute childhood memory," she said, reaching for his hand with her good one as they walked.

"Jared still hates cereal." There was another silence, but Brennan found it wasn't as strange as before. They turned the corner, and continued to walk up the street in silence. When they reached her building she turned to him.

"We've got to go this way," she said, pulling him by the arm. She unlocked the gate that she knew led to a garden. She pulled him to a fountain, and made him sit on the ledge.

"I feel like I'm in a Shakespeare play," he said. "And I'm not quite sure why."

"Put your hands in the fountain water," she said.

Booth looked at her like she was insane. "Bones, it's freezing out. Why the hell would I do that."

"I'll explain once we're upstairs. I promise."

"I'm cold as it is, can't you just tell me why you want to highten that feeling?"

"Trust me, Booth. Please?"

He rolled his eyes. "You're a strange one, Bones."

Once they were inside, both of them shivering, they fell into their regular pattern. Hang up jackets, turn on coffee, sit on couch. "I'll... I'll be right back," she said, retreating to her bedroom.

Booth leaned back against the couch, eyes closed, and sighed. He felt her weight fall onto the other side of the couch and he cracked open an eye.

She sat down across from him, and looked at him questioningly. She handed the wraped package to him, mumbling a "this is for you."

He opened it slowly, trying to memorize this moment. Trying to get every detail spot on so that he could save it at the back of his mind. It was a book, bound in black, with no title on it. He looked over at her, one eyebrow raised.

"I got it made just for you. It's uhm, it's the first copy of my new novel."

"Bones, I-- This one isn't supposed to come out for another six months."

"But it's for you. Open it?"

"Thank you, Bones."

"Booth," she said, smiling. "Open it."

Inside there was a dedication. _To every person who has ever felt like they didn't have a home._ Booth smiled, and so did Brennan. He ran through the pages, flipping them until they stopped in the middle of the book. There were two plane tickets.

"Bones, I-"

"I wanted you to be able to remember how cold it is here before you go to Hawaii."

"Bones, I can't accept this."

"Booth, just... just take it. Take Parker to Hawaii for two weeks, get a tan, drink some beer. It'll be fun. Plus you deserve a vacation."

He smiled again. So did she.

After a few minutes, he looked over at her. "You know how you said that this isn't where you'd think I'd have pictured myself at 37?"

"Yes," she said. "It wasn't that long ago. Of course I remember."

Booth rolled his eyes. "I always thought, you know, I'd have a family, a house, a white picket fence. Maybe a dog. Maybe every couple of weeks me and some buddies would get together and watch a game or something. This... this isn't what I ever pictured my life would be like."

"I'm sorry that you're not living the American Dream," Brennan said sadly.

"I'm not. Things don't always go as planned, but sometimes Bones, sometimes they end up being better."

* * *

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